Debbie Shon, an international trade lawyer at Quinn Emanuel and a former official in the US Trade Representative's office under President Bill Clinton, said that effectively hitting Trump's businesses using trade actions — while legal — would be difficult.
"Looking at Trump's businesses, I'm not sure what goods he sells that could be subject to tariffs or how you could use trade actions to hit his businesses unless you really tailored some sort of measure targeting key industries like real estate," Shon told Business Insider.
That would force any country trying to go after Trump to get creative with their response. Scott Gilmore, a social entrepreneur and former Canadian diplomat,
suggested in Maclean's that Canada should use anti-corruption laws to pressure Trump on trade.
A Trump-branded skyscraper in Vancouver represents the president's most prominent business venture in the country.
"I propose that instead of taxing the import of American serviettes, we tax Trump," Gilmore said. "In the spirit of the Magnitsky Act, Canada and the western allies come together to collectively pressure the only pain point that matters to this President: his family and their assets."...